Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979. The entire show can be purchased on Prime.
Well, they tease him a lot …. even though he’s not longer on the spot….
Episode 4.9 “The Barbarino Blues”
(Dir by November 3rd, 1978, directed by Norman Abbott)
Gabe Kaplan is not in this episode but John Travolta is. The audience goes wild when they see John Travolta stepped onto the soundstage. Maybe they were worried they were going to get stuck watching one of the episodes in which Barbarino doesn’t appear.
Well, no worries for them! This episode is all about Barbarino and the Sweathogs. Unfortunately, the majority of it takes place in Barbarino’s incredibly ugly and dirty-looking apartment. I don’t know why but every 70s sitcom appeared to take place in the filthiest locations possible. I saw an episode of All In The Family recently and I found myself cringing at the thought of all the bugs and weevils that were probably buried in Archie Bunker’s chair. Welcome Back Kotter takes thing even further by having Vinnie live in what appears to be the drug room in an abandoned building. Joe Buck and Ratso lived in a nicer place.
Anyway, Barbarino is depressed. He was going to break up with his girlfriend but she dumped him first. “I’m so depressed!” Travolta says, in his high-pitched Barbarino voice. The other Sweathogs try to help Barbarino conquer the blues. This means that a good deal of the episode is taken up with Beau giving advice to Barbarino. The whole thing is set up as a changing of the guard sort of thing. It’s as if the show is saying, “You think John Travolta’s cool? Well, check out Stephen Shortridge!”
It’s a dumb episode. At one point, the Sweathogs point out that Barbarino hasn’t come to school in three days and it was a bit jarring to be reminded that the middle-aged-looking men were all supposed to be high school students. Usually, whenever this show had a bad episode, John Travolta would serve as Welcome Back Kotter‘s saving grace. But, with this episode, Travolta appears to be as bored as just about everyone else. Travolta had movie stardom to focus on. By the time this episode aired, he had been nominated for an Oscar. It’s probably safe to say that being a Sweathog was the last thing on Travolta’s mind.
Speaking of the Sweathogs, I have defended Ron Pallilo’s performance as Horshack in the past. Yes, Horshack is annoying but Pallilo occasionally managed to capture the character’s sweet and innocent nature. But I have to admit that I’ve spent most of the fourth season hoping that someone will finally toss Horshack off the Brooklyn Bridge. Everyone turned into a caricature during the fourth season and, since Horshack was already a caricature, that just made his character even more annoying. There’s also the fact that Ron Pallilo was 30 years old during the fourth season and he looked older. Whenever he did Horshack’s signature laugh, the wrinkles on his face would suddenly appear and make him look like a map of the interstate highway system.
I guess my point is that this is another episode that left little doubt that it was time for everyone to move on. I mean, when even Kotter isn’t around to be welcomed back, it’s time to graduate and start a new life as a featured player Off-Broadway. To quote the Chambers Brothers: “TIME!”
Through the Shattered Lens 